Last Modified: Monday, November 10, 2008 at 12:36 p.m.

On Tuesday night, Nov. 4, 2008 the world gasped with the audacious hope that the impossible is actually possible after all.

Somewhere in our hearts, all of us know that the circumstances of our birth are in the luck of the draw. Not one of us asked to be here, nor can we choose where, when, or to whom we are born. In this we are all equal.

But once we’re born, all of that changes. Throughout history, money, power, position, pedigree, race and religion have all played critical roles in the way people see themselves. Every war that has ever been fought has had some element of “we’re better than they are” as a core justification to wipe other human beings out of existence.

The wonder is that the mainstreams of humanity have bought into these self serving ideologies and man-made categories and have allowed themselves to be governed by them for the length and breadth of civilization.

It took thousands of years for a few radical thinkers, first in ancient Greece and almost two centuries later during the Enlightenment, to form the vocabulary and write the script that has given nations the right to choose their leaders from their own ranks, and another three centuries to make that breathtaking idea a reality.

America was founded on ideals that had never been lived out in human experience. Freedom for all men – what exactly did that mean? Equality? For whom? The idea that unlanded men, men of color, or even women might participate in the voting or governing process never entered the minds of the educated, idealistic men who crafted the Constitution.

The idea of real freedom, real equality was so foreign to the whole of human experience that we had to discover it, almost like discovering the new world, island by island and piece by piece.

The moment must be right for history to find its ultimate fulfillment in the imaginations of the people who are living it. It has taken hundreds of years, the enslavement and emancipation of millions of Africans, and the Women’s Suffrage movement for America to see the full culmination of the Founders’ far reaching dreams; dreams that they themselves did not fully understand.

But finally, in this, the only nation founded on a dream that all men are created equal, a man who would have been a slave had he been born a mere 150 years ago, has now fulfilled that dream by becoming its freely elected president.

Sometimes ordinary people are propelled by national and personal circumstances to long for more than a better life. Times such as the difficult days in which we now find ourselves, summon them to reach beyond themselves for the good of their families, their communities, their nation, even the world.

In such times, self sacrifice and courage well up in the common man and woman. We begin to remember that with hard work and the determination to stay the course behind a leader who is honest, thoughtful, and capable, we can come together to find again the core values that hold us together as a people.

As we look around us at the other citizens of the world, we are beginning to understand we are more alike than we are different. America has always been the land of hope and promise, where dreams, no matter how impossible they may seem, just might come true.

Such dreams are born when ordinary human beings step outside of themselves in search of something so far above the ordinary that their own hearts can hardly conceive of it. Dreams like:

Reason triumphing over old hatreds.

Blacks embracing whites.

Nations choosing to lay down their arms and pick up the mantle of peace.

The dream of peace overcoming the nationalistic urge to be superior.

Fear of “the other” giving way to confidence in the brotherhood of humanity.

Even Isaac embracing Ishmael.

Sometimes an election is more about the people than the man or woman they are electing to lead them. Many Americans who remember the Civil Rights Movement went to the polls on Nov. 4 to sign their names to the belief that we are a nation that fully believes the ideals that led Enlightenment thinkers to craft the impossible: A government of the people, by the people, and for the people, where all people, regardless of race, gender or creed, are equal.

Why did people across America and around the world weep for joy when Barack Obama was elected? People the world over innately realized they were standing at last on the shores of an ancient dream’s fulfillment.

Finally and at last, every person on earth can look in the mirror and see not the color of his or her skin, but their worth as a member of the world community. That mirror shows them a future bright with the hope that underneath all of the hatred and strife around them, humanity still longs for brotherhood.

When Barack Obama was elected President of the United States, the rest of us were elected to hope in the impossible dream. Not just Martin Luther King’s dream, but the dream of every person who chooses to believe that with perseverance, determination and character, each and every one of us can go beyond ourselves to change the world for the better.

<p>There are moments in life when the world is bigger than you ever imagined it could be and every square inch of it is filled with promise. This is one of those moments. </p><p>On Tuesday night, Nov. 4, 2008 the world gasped with the audacious hope that the impossible is actually possible after all.</p><p>Somewhere in our hearts, all of us know that the circumstances of our birth are in the luck of the draw. Not one of us asked to be here, nor can we choose where, when, or to whom we are born. In this we are all equal.</p><p>But once we’re born, all of that changes. Throughout history, money, power, position, pedigree, race and religion have all played critical roles in the way people see themselves. Every war that has ever been fought has had some element of we’re better than they are as a core justification to wipe other human beings out of existence.</p><p>The wonder is that the mainstreams of humanity have bought into these self serving ideologies and man-made categories and have allowed themselves to be governed by them for the length and breadth of civilization.</p><p>It took thousands of years for a few radical thinkers, first in ancient Greece and almost two centuries later during the Enlightenment, to form the vocabulary and write the script that has given nations the right to choose their leaders from their own ranks, and another three centuries to make that breathtaking idea a reality.</p><p>America was founded on ideals that had never been lived out in human experience. Freedom for all men – what exactly did that mean? Equality? For whom? The idea that unlanded men, men of color, or even women might participate in the voting or governing process never entered the minds of the educated, idealistic men who crafted the Constitution.</p><p>The idea of real freedom, real equality was so foreign to the whole of human experience that we had to discover it, almost like discovering the new world, island by island and piece by piece.</p><p>The moment must be right for history to find its ultimate fulfillment in the imaginations of the people who are living it. It has taken hundreds of years, the enslavement and emancipation of millions of Africans, and the Women’s Suffrage movement for America to see the full culmination of the Founders’ far reaching dreams; dreams that they themselves did not fully understand. </p><p>But finally, in this, the only nation founded on a dream that all men are created equal, a man who would have been a slave had he been born a mere 150 years ago, has now fulfilled that dream by becoming its freely elected president. </p><p>Sometimes ordinary people are propelled by national and personal circumstances to long for more than a better life. Times such as the difficult days in which we now find ourselves, summon them to reach beyond themselves for the good of their families, their communities, their nation, even the world.</p><p>In such times, self sacrifice and courage well up in the common man and woman. We begin to remember that with hard work and the determination to stay the course behind a leader who is honest, thoughtful, and capable, we can come together to find again the core values that hold us together as a people.</p><p>As we look around us at the other citizens of the world, we are beginning to understand we are more alike than we are different. America has always been the land of hope and promise, where dreams, no matter how impossible they may seem, just might come true. </p><p>Such dreams are born when ordinary human beings step outside of themselves in search of something so far above the ordinary that their own hearts can hardly conceive of it. Dreams like:</p><p>Reason triumphing over old hatreds.</p><p>Blacks embracing whites.</p><p>Nations choosing to lay down their arms and pick up the mantle of peace.</p><p>The dream of peace overcoming the nationalistic urge to be superior.</p><p>Fear of the other giving way to confidence in the brotherhood of humanity.</p><p>Even Isaac embracing Ishmael.</p><p>Sometimes an election is more about the people than the man or woman they are electing to lead them. Many Americans who remember the Civil Rights Movement went to the polls on Nov. 4 to sign their names to the belief that we are a nation that fully believes the ideals that led Enlightenment thinkers to craft the impossible: A government of the people, by the people, and for the people, where all people, regardless of race, gender or creed, are equal.</p><p>Why did people across America and around the world weep for joy when Barack Obama was elected? People the world over innately realized they were standing at last on the shores of an ancient dream’s fulfillment.</p><p>Finally and at last, every person on earth can look in the mirror and see not the color of his or her skin, but their worth as a member of the world community. That mirror shows them a future bright with the hope that underneath all of the hatred and strife around them, humanity still longs for brotherhood.</p><p>When Barack Obama was elected President of the United States, the rest of us were elected to hope in the impossible dream. Not just Martin Luther King’s dream, but the dream of every person who chooses to believe that with perseverance, determination and character, each and every one of us can go beyond ourselves to change the world for the better.</p>